E-cigarettes a threat to adolescents and should not be sold to minors, World Health Organisation says

Updated
Wed Aug 27 17:13:22 EST 2014

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WHO says e-cigarettes pose a threat to adolescents.

Public Health Department

Electronic cigarettes pose a threat to adolescents and should not be sold to minors, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, in a long-awaited report that calls for strict regulation of the devices.

In the 13-page report, which will be debated by member states at a meeting in October in Moscow, the United Nations health agency also voiced concern at the concentration of the $3 billion market in the hands of transnational tobacco companies.

The WHO declared war on "Big Tobacco" a decade ago, clinching the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first public health treaty that has been ratified by 179 states since entering into force in 2005.

The treaty recommends price and tax measures to curb demand as well as bans on tobacco advertising and illicit trade in tobacco products.

Prior to Tuesday's report the WHO had indicated it would favour applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products, including smokeless ones.

The WHO urged a range of "regulatory options", including prohibiting e-cigarette makers from making health claims — such as that they help people quit smoking — until they provide "convincing supporting scientific evidence and obtain regulatory approval".

E-cigarettes should be regulated to "minimise content and emissions of toxicants", and those solutions with fruit, candy-like and alcohol-drinks flavours should be banned, it said. Vending machines should be removed in almost all locations.

The use of e-cigarettes poses a threat to adolescents and the foetuses of pregnant women, the report said.

E-cigarettes also increase the exposure of bystanders and non-smokers to nicotine and other toxicants, it said regarding Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems that it calls ENDS.

"In summary, existing evidence shows that ENDS aerosol is not merely 'water vapour' as is often claimed in the marketing or these products," the WHO said in the report.

Scientists are divided on the risks and potential benefits of e-cigarettes, which are widely considered to be a lot less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

But opposing experts argued a month later that the WHO should hold firm to its plan for strict regulations.

E-cigarettes more tempting than regular cigarettes: study

A total of 178 countries are parties to the FCTC and are obliged to implement its measures, with the United States the one notable non-signatory.

Major tobacco companies including Imperial Tobacco, Altria Group, Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are increasingly launching their own e-cigarette brands as sales of conventional products stall in Western markets.

A Wells Fargo analyst report in July projected that US sales of e-cigarettes would outpace conventional ones by 2020.

Uptake of electronic cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced inhalable vapour, has rocketed in the past two years and analysts estimate the industry had worldwide sales of some $3 billion in 2013.

But the devices are controversial. Because they are so new there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence to support their safety and some fear they could be "gateway" products to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking.

Adolescents are increasingly experimenting with e-cigarettes, with their use in this age group doubling between 2008 and 2012, the WHO said.

A study by US researchers published on Monday found they may be more tempting to non-smoking youths than conventional cigarettes.